The ballad of Stubby Clapp

Stubby Clapp's game as much as his name made him a fan favorite. The new manager of the Tri-City ValleyCats is shown here competing for Team Canada against Japan in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (Associated Press)

Maybe if his name was different he wouldn’t be such an icon both in his native Canada and parts of the United States.

He almost certainly wouldn’t have had a folk song penned in his honor.

Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten that bobblehead day in Memphis, or have a growth chart with his likeness on it. (He “demanded” he be 6 feet tall instead of his 5-8.) Maybe he wouldn’t have become the first Redbirds player to have his number retired. You know, he’s so popular down there he’s been called the “Mayor of Memphis.”

Then again, fans always loved his gritty hustle. Fans always are drawn to the undersized second baseman, the scrappy utility guy. Who doesn’t love a player who busts a gut to first on routine grounders? And if that underdog can and is willing to do cartwheels and back flips on the field, so much the better.

But if you are going to go by his chosen handle, and be a showman, too, you better be a player.

So, no, his name, the name given his father and his father before him, isn’t solely responsible for his popularity, or his years on Team Canada, or that cup of coffee he got with the St. Louis Cardinals. (He made his debut 10 years ago as of Saturday.) His name is not why he’s the new manager of the Tri-City ValleyCats, who begin defense of their New York-Penn League crown with their home opener next Friday.

But it didn’t hurt to have one of the all-time great baseball lifer handles. It doesn’t hurt to be Stubby Clapp.

The Stubby name started with grandfather Ezra, given by friends to a tough truck driver who rode broncos and had hams for fists.

“Once I got older and I understood where the nickname came from,” the grandson said, “that’s when I got adamant about using it.”

Dad Keith — Stubby II — played baseball and hockey, and later won national titles on his traveling softball team. Stubby III would shag flies. The son, who grew up in Windsor, Ont., loved baseball and dreamed of representing his country, but was also a good enough right wing to draw hockey scholarship offers from American colleges. Texas Tech offered a better deal for baseball.

The style of play, the small frame, the name … you wonder: Would he have been as popular if he went by his given Richard Keith Clapp? Richie Clapp? R.K. Clapp? (We’ll stop there.)

“No. I think what happened is everyone hears my name and can’t believe I actually go by it,” the 38-year-old said. “People want to poke fun at it. But then people paid attention to the way I played.”

(Video after the jump)

It was the way he played that got him a spot on all those Team Canada squads, including for a pair of Olympics and two World Baseball Classics. It’s the way he played that kept him in pro baseball for 11 years as a player, including 23 games with the Cardinals.

It’s the way he played that got him minor folk hero status up north for delivering the game-winning extra innings hit that defeated the United States in the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg.

A stocky man came up to bat

And the crowd stood up to give

A tip of the hat to Stubby Clapp

Who sank the Yanks with a crack of the bat …

O.K., maybe “The Ballad of Stubby Clapp” by Cousins of the Moose never gets written for a guy named Joe, but still.

Clapp says he prefers to still be called Stubby instead of Skip, the unofficial official nickname of all managers. This is first gig running a team, after serving as a minor league hitting coach and roving infield instructor the past three seasons. He only started getting his team assembled in Florida this past week. Since getting the job in December, all he could do is mull the theoretical, not personnel.

Clapp sees himself as “someone who teaches to play the game the right way, not only the strategies but the mechanics to play the game the right way. I would like to pass on the same respect as a manager that I had as a player.”

Clapp has already passed on Stubby to his oldest son, 7-year-old Cooper. (And that name came from the model of Dad’s first-ever glove.) It’s even one of his middle names. That way it will be easier for IV to cash baseball paycheckS made out to yet another Stubby Clapp.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. The name alone doesn’t guarantee a thing. Not one bit. But it doesn’t hurt. Not one bit.